Phantom Girls
by LA Knight
Summary: Ryo meets a shy, strange looking girl at a nightclub, and asks her to dance. Unknown to him, the other Ronins are there as well, and the girl is not alone. Set pre-tv show, before Ryo and co met.
1. 00 Ready To Dance

**Prologue**

**Ready To Dance**

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If their father caught them, all six of them would be in serious trouble. A beating would be the least of their worries. Yayoi envisioned something like being locked in her room, fed on bread and water, with nothing to read and nothing to occupy her time, forbidden to see her sisters for a week or more. But somehow, the rush of sneaking off to the human realm was worth that risk.

She shoved through the racks and racks of dresses in her huge, walk-in closet, wandering what in the world she was going to wear. She had outfits from every century since her father's banishment. Many from those centuries and countries who forbade the showing of much leg had been slashed up so as to be made serviceable. Velvets, laces, silks and brocades, furs and satins, leather and chiffon- she had everything. The question of the century was, however, what was she going to wear?

Spying a blue velvet gown from the seventeenth century, the skirt hacked raggedly to knee length, she hauled it out and shimmied into it, a handmaid lacing it up the back while she did the front.

Excitement coursed through her. She gave her body a little shake and grabbed her jewelry box from her vanity. Dumping it out, she set aside several bead pearls, crystals, and blue stones. She would braid them into her long, silvery blonde hair after she picked out her shoes and jewelry. She hadn't even had to ask before a maid approached with her shiny, knee-high leather boots in hand. Yayoi slid her feet into the butter soft leather and zipped up the sides. Unlike the maids, she made a point to remain up to date on modern fashions and how they worked.

Quickly, she tied back her hair, leaving only the two strands on either side of her face, in which she braided the pretty beads before tying the braids up in a crown upon her head. She smeared electric blue powder like silky pollen on her eyelids and lined her blue-grey eyes with midnight blue kohl, thickened her lashes with black mascara before high-lighting them with neon blue. She ran sparkling white, vanilla and blueberry flavored gloss over her lips and blue a kiss at the mirror. Fastening a silver and blue topaz choker around her throat, she slipped on a black leather jacket and checked herself out.

Not too shabby, she thought, since she was hiding her scars behind layers of foundation and the malformation of her ear was hidden when she let the hair not caught up in a braid fall down her back. There was nothing she could do about her left hand and the way she limped when she walked, or the way her left eye pulled at the rest of her face, tilting oddly. Her nose was still crooked from the break it had received in stave practice as a child. But she didn't care. She just wanted to go dancing with her sisters. Maybe meet some boys.

It wasn't as if the four men she knew personally- not counting her father- were up for grabs. And it would be nice if she didn't have the drooling mongrels her father considered boys always around, mumbling "Princess" this and "Princess" that. Meeting some boys would be lovely. A boy with pretty blue eyes, maybe. Maybe they would dance and have a great, one-night-stand-kind-of time at the club, like Cinderella, sans marriage.

Maybe.

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_This fanfic idea has been simmering on the backburner of my brain for almost 11 years. Yes, I said years. As in, 11 stretches of time that are 12 months long. Originally it was a Sailor Moon/Tenchi Muyo/Ronin Warriors crossover, but I revamped it cause the crossover bit was NOT working out. This is actually a prequel to a fic I'm gonna post later, "Behind Every Great Warrior." Anyway, this story is how Ryo meets and falls for my OC, Izumi. Reviews are nice. Loves!_


	2. 01 Pairing Off

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Chapter One

Pairing Off

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"I can't _believe_ I let you talk us into this, Ri-chan," Kento muttered, cracking his knuckles. He glanced around at the writhing, roiling crowd in the nightclub, then at Shinri. Shinri Rei Faun was Kento's favorite sister of three, but only because she was his twin. Still, he would have rather had all three of his sisters here at the club. Then he could sit at the bar and enjoy hanging out with Rowen and Cye, who'd agreed to come with him so the perpetually hungry youth didn't hang himself in the bathroom during a sappy slow song, while the girls danced together.

"Come on, Hard Head. You might have fun." Shinri scuffed her short, pixie length black hair. It looked like a cap of sable fur, softer than velvet, fringed at the forehead by chin-length ebony spikes for bangs. Her blue eyes, like the blade of a katana, sparkled as she tugged on her brother's jacket sleeve. "Come on, Kento," she added, smiling. "It'll be great. Right, guys?" She turned to Cye and Rowen, who gulped and held up their hands.

"Don't get us into this!" Cye said defensively. "I always say the wrong thing. Ask Kaiyou."

"My name's Paul, this is between y'all," Rowen quoted an old American film.

Sighing, Shinri ignored the two boys who were like brothers to her and turned to her real brother, slinging one arm around his shoulder. "Come on, Jerk Face," she said affectionately. "Suck it up. Don't be a chicken. _Pwease_?" She added, pouting. "For _meeeee_?"

"Just don't do any of that stuff you do to guys that makes them drool on you. I can't stand that, Ri-Chan. It's gross," Kento added defensively when she gave him a look.

Smirking, his sister replied, "Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful."

"Not to mention famous, Miss Pop-Star."

She merely shrugged and pulled him out onto the dance floor. Rowen and Cye followed, smirking.

**Oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oO**

Yayoi stepped into the club, shaking off the lingering feeling of passing through the veil. Looking around, she double checked that all five of her sisters were with her. She met Izumi's eyes, the same blue-grey as her own, and then her twin sister took her hand and pulled her into the club, followed by the other four- Mei, Aki, Rikka, and Suki. Now was the time to throw off the cares of their normal, everyday lives and just enjoy the throbbing bass of the music, the words and melodies calling the six girls out onto the dance floor.

Cocking her head, she listened to the music pumping out of the huge speakers, crashing into everyone writhing and gyrating out on the wooden floor.

_What's wrong with me? Why do I feel like this?  
I'm going crazy now  
No more gas, in the red, can't even get it started  
Nothing heard, nothing said, can't even speak about it  
On my life, on my head, don't wanna think about it  
Feels like I'm going insane, yeah_

Smiling now- she knew that feeling of slowly going mad- she tugged on her twin's hand, and the six girls all slipped out onto the dance floor.

**_Oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oO_**

"Satsuki!" Sage cried, but his younger sister ignored him. She hated that name, Satsuki. It was such a child's name, such a simple name. Why had her parents decided to call her that? She hated it. "_Satsuki_!" Her brother called again, but she just hurried down the sidewalk and ducked in through the club entrance.

The bouncer grabbed her by the collar of her short, black silk kimono jacket, roughly jerking her to a halt.

"Got ID?" He demanded, breathing rancid beef breath in her face. She flashed him the driver's license in her wallet, and he let her go. She hurried into the packed nightclub before Sage got to the door of the establishment, only stopping to hand off her jacket to the item girl by the coat room.

When Sage finally made it past the bouncer, he couldn't see Satsuki anywhere. He'd have to stay and look for her.

**Oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oO**

Ryo Sanada sighed and sipped his sake and coke, staring out at the churning dance floor. Why was he even here? It wasn't like he knew anyone here. It wasn't as if he could pretend he was a normal kid and dance like a reckless idiot out there to some thumping chick music. He could only sit here and try to buzz out the constant edge he carried with him in anticipation of being attacked by the enemy he knew would one day come.

Something gleaming white flashed in the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see what it was, and saw a girl, undulating and insinuating herself between two other girls, one of whom could have been her sister. In blue velvet and black leather, she glittered in the flashing strobe lights of the nightclub's dance floor.

She turned, whirling and writhing, and her eyes caught his. She froze. The entire floor surged and churned around her, but she remained stock still, staring at him. He stared at her, at the eyes dark in her face in the dim light, and her hair flowing down over her shoulders, at the strange dress she wore beneath her black leather jacket. He blinked, and found himself on his feet, having taken a step away from his bar stool. Surprised, he looked around at himself, then glanced back at the girl. She was still staring at him.

Taking a deep breath, wondering why he felt like he was about to take a running leap over a cliff into a raging river, he walked over to her, forgetting about his drink.

Yayoi watched the youth approaching her, and swallowed hard. He was so handsome! With thick black hair long enough that it curled at the shoulders and eyes bluer than the heart of a flame, Yayoi had to admit he was far handsomer than anyone her father had tossed her way up until now. She swallowed again, and took a step forward, meeting him as he took his last step in her direction.

"Hi," he said, speaking loudly to be heard over the music. "I'm Ryo."

"Yayoi," she replied, unable to look away from this young man standing in front of her. Her face flushed, and she bit her lip, looking down at her feet in their slick leather boots. She debated for all of a second, then looked back up and asked impulsively, "Would you like to dance with me?"

_Your mind's in disturbia, it's like the darkness is light  
Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight?  
Disturbia, ain't used to what you like  
Disturbia, disturbia_

_Your mind's in disturbia, it's like the darkness is light  
Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight?  
Disturbia, ain't used to what you like  
Disturbia, disturbia, disturbia_

Ryo smiled, and Yayoi's toes curled in her boots. She felt heat rise into her cheeks, and she ducked her head, suddenly embarrassed. _Of course_ he didn't want to dance with her! There was nothing so great about her! Nothing he knew, at any rate. He didn't know she was a princess. But he could see- or would see, if he hadn't noticed yet- that her face was deformed, that a thick scar ran from beneath her left ear to just under her neck- its ugly, bruised purple color hidden only by the caked on foundation- and that her left hand only had three fingers.

"Sure," he said, and took her left hand.

He didn't flinch when he came into contact with the strange, bony protrusion where most people had a little finger. He in fact grasped her hand tighter and did a little twist turn with her arm so that he spun her around and had her tucked up against his body, under his arm, before she could blink. He tucked his right cheek against her left one, so there was no way she could pretend he didn't know her surgical scar was there, and murmured, "Am I too close?"

"N-n-not at all," she stammered, cursing silently that being so close to this boy made her heart suddenly race. She'd never been this close to a man before. Many of them were too interested in physical beauty and too disgusted by her obvious disfigurement to get close to her.

Suddenly, the song changed, and she let the thumping rhythm push its way up out of the vibrating ground into her feet. Listening to the familiar song, she let herself sway against the boy holding her in his arms. Suddenly, she could feel everything about this moment. The soft denim of his jacket against the bare skin of her wrists as she laid her arm over the one he curled around her waist, the warmth of his breath against her cheek, his dark curls whispering against her ear, his heartbeat thudding wetly against his chest and her back. She sighed, and shivered.

"You okay?" Ryo asked her, concerned.

She seemed so tense. Was she worried about how he'd react to her looks? Something had obviously scarred her, but that was of no matter to him. He'd seen plenty worse. And every flaw and defect was balanced out by the rest of her. She was missing two fingers, but the three fingers that were left were long and elegantly tapered. She had that thick, rigid scar under her ear. But her skin was silky with face powder, and her face was slender, with elegant bones. While not outrageously pretty, she was all right looking. Her scars and the way her eye slanted so strangely would keep her from ever being pretty, but she wasn't hideously disfigured.

"Yes," she murmured, and moved against him. He shuddered with sudden burning awareness of the fact that there was a soft, curvy, feminine shape pressed against his body, burning with the heat of the nightclub and the roiling dance floor under the soft velvet of her dress and supple leather of her jacket.

They began to move, swirling and turning, dancing with a rhythm and in unison, as if weaving a spell between them. Grey-blue eyes like the sea after a storm met eyes like the heart of a flame, and never wavered from that cobalt gaze as they danced.

**Oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oO**

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, Kento thought, surprised.

He'd met up with a girl on the dance floor once he'd been separated from Shinri, a pretty girl with grey eyes so dark they might have almost been black and long black hair done up in countless braids, in a slinky silver halter top and black flared jeans. She moved like the wind, dancing almost on the tips of her toes, flitting around him and brushing up against him, flirting shamelessly. Oh, he liked her. She was pretty, and flirty, and that little half smile on her face was enough to drive any guy to distraction. This was nice, he thought, dancing with a cute girl on a Friday night. This was really nice.

"I think he's using the dice move too much," Rowen said to Cye where they stood watching their friend. Cye shrugged.

"That's kind of all he's got, really," the brunette replied, but he wasn't really paying attention.

He was staring at a girl slithering like a sinuous serpent against two other girls, one who moved like a flickering shadow against the wall and one who moved stiffly, as if she didn't quite know what she was doing and wasn't comfortable dancing in front of so many people. All three girls were grinning, but Cye was more concerned with the girl who moved like a queen cobra, writhing back and forth, moving with the pulsing music. Her long, auburn hair flowed around her like a russet silk cloak. She wore what was obviously a purposely shredded, red and gold kimono as a jacket over a tight, long sleeved brown shirt and brown cropped pants. Crimson silk slippers caught his eye. Those couldn't possibly be comfortable for dancing in.

Suddenly, she bounded up to him, and stopped right in front of him, smiling.

"Hi!" She said, half-waving. "I'm Aki. Wanna dance?"

Caught off guard, Cye's mouth dropped open and he started to speak when the other two girls ran up to their friend.

"Aki!" The shadowy girl, in a black miniskirt and black halter top, poked the snake-girl in the ribs. "What about us? Who's gonna dance with Suki?"

"_You_ can dance with Suki, Mei," the girl called Aki replied, then snapped her fingers, as if she'd had a sudden thought. Turning to Rowen, she held out her hand, pointing at his chest, and said, "How about _you_ dance with Suki? You look like a good dancer. As long as you're nice to her, everything will be great." Leaning in and whispering conspiratorially, she added, "Suki's _really_ shy."

"_Aki_!" The other girl, who must be Suki, stared at her, aghast. "I'm not shy!"

"Right," Aki said, clearly ignoring her. "So, you wanna?"

"Aki-" Suki began, but Rowen interrupted her.

"Sure, I'll dance with you," he said, and took Suki's hand as a slow song he recognized came on. "Let's go, eh? It'll be fun. Don't worry, I'm a good dancer. I promise not to step on your feet." He led a speechless Suki out onto the dance floor. Aki grinned, but the smile slipped off of her face when Mei asked acidly, "Hello? What about _me_? Who am I supposed to dance with?"

"Go dance with Izumi," Aki said airily.

"Izumi went home," Mei hissed. "And Yayoi is actually dancing with someone." Aki started in surprise at this news.

"Is he being nice to her?"

"Seems to be," Mei replied, shrugging. "Now, who's gonna be my da-"

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around to look up into the most beautiful eye she'd ever seen in her life. The other eye was hidden by a lock of hanging golden hair. A chiseled, model-like face looked down at her, smiling almost arrogantly.

"Wanna dance?" Sage Date asked. Mei swallowed. She didn't even complain when Aki dragged Cye out onto the floor, bumping her on the way. "Well?" Sage asked again. Mei nodded, unable to think of a witty retort, and took the blond man's hand. He easily, eagerly led her out onto the dance floor.

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_And the stage is set. _

_The whole point of this fic is to show the courtship between Yayoi and Ryo, Aki and Cye, Mei and Sage, Rikka and Kento, and Suki and Rowen. Izumi has her own boyfriend, but theirs is an already established relationship at the beginning of this story, so there's more like dealing with obstacles versus courtship and wooing in the Izumi department. By the end of this story, each girl is supposed to get something to their benefit from their special Ronin. Yayoi will be more confident, Aki will be less selfish, Mei will be less sarcastic, Rikka will learn to be more serious, and Suki will learn to be braver. Not brave, necessarily, but braver. How that happens, well... we'll see._

_At this point, only Ryo and Yayoi have a mutual emotional connection. Cye only noticed Aki because she moves so strangely. Everyone else, it's just a passing thing at the moment. No one's head over heels in love just yet. Except Izumi and her beau. Take a guess at who it is. Anyone?_

_Reviews?_


	3. 02 A Brief Interlude

**Chapter Two**

**A Brief Interlude**

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"How was the dancing?" A soft voice asked.

Izumi didn't turn around, but knelt before the tiny shrine in her room, staring at the single candle flame flickering in the darkness. Around her, the shadows pressed in close, like black velvet. The flame was reflected in the twin pools of her dark blue eyes. A hand- not hers, but belonging to the soft voice who had asked her about the dancing- gently stroked her long, silvery blonde hair. The caress didn't disturb the pool of silky silver tresses that fell to the floor around her. And the touch was hesitant, as if the owner of that hand didn't know if he'd be reprimanded for taking the liberty of touching that wealth of white gold hair.

"Princess Izumi?" The voice asked hesitantly.

She turned, slowly, looking up at the demon warlord standing behind her and to the left. The clear eyes, like a dark sky, gleamed in the candlelight. She blinked, and the warlord was again reminded how much he loved to see the princess blink- her eyelashes were like tiny, gossamer spikes of gold. Only one other maiden had eyelashes like that- Yayoi, Izumi's twin sister- but unlike the Princess Izumi, Yayoi's strangely twisted left eye was highlighted by the strange golden eyelashes, and it drew attention to her disfigurement.

Izumi only had scars, no twisted features, though she, too, had a twisted foot like Yayoi, and two of her fingers had an extra joint. Those two fingers, on her right hand, were the two fingers missing from Yayoi's left hand. Their hands had not finished separating in their mother's womb, and it had happened that when they were readying to cut the twins apart after birth, Izumi had shown that she had control of those two disputed fingers. So Yayoi only had three fingers, but Izumi had two exceptionally long fingers- an inch longer than her middle finger- with multiple joints. She was also blind in her right eye- the eye that had been so closely connected to her sister's twisted left eye.

But the warlord cared nothing for her flawed looks. What he loved best were her long, golden lashes and her long, silver hair. And, he thought, giving her an appreciative once-over, the way she fitted into that black silk brocade kimono, embroidered with silver and gold cranes. The white obi, made of stiff silk, cinched her waist and belly, accentuating her curves.

Yet she did not speak- that worried him. She was usually very talkative. What was wrong?

"_Nani_ _Izumi-hime da_?" He asked.

"Why do you never go with me, my Warlord?" She asked softly, still looking at him with her head tilted in that way that told a sharp observer she only saw with her left eye. "To the human world. Why do you not dance with me?"

"I… it is not proper. You are Emperor Talpa's daughter and I am a-"

"Silly warlord," she whispered, and dropped her chin, settling into the mound of brocade that was her kimono, like a turtle withdrawing into its shell. "You are a silly, silly warlord."

The demon general bristled at the term "silly." Silly was how you described a not-to-bright child, not a warlord of the Netherworld. Bowing stiffly, he said, his voice just a hair shy of a snarl, "I shall take my leave, then, Princess." He turned on his heel and strode toward the door. He had barely set a foot across the threshold when the sound of Izumi's voice made him stop.

"Don't be vexed, okay? Come on," she called softly, almost sadly. "I'm sorry. Come back to me. Please?"

"Why should I?" He demanded, voice soft as well. "You offer me no respect. I am your father's warlord, a fighter who has never lost a fight for this kingdom. Yet you treat me like a callow youth fresh out of army training. Why should I come back into a room to be ridiculed by a girl?"

"I have great respect for you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to get away with saying stuff like that."

She got to her feet with a rustling of silks and limped toward him. He knew her twisted foot could not bear her full weight. Seeing the strain on her face from trying to walk tall and straight, he walked toward her, and caught her when she stumbled and fell into his arms. She rested her forehead against the cool metal of his chest plate, her hair cascading around them both like a curtain. She made a small sound.

"Pain?" He asked.

"_Hai_," Izumi whispered, trembling. He lifted her into his arms in one swift motion. She gasped in surprise and delight. She looked up into his eyes, and murmured, "_Aishiteru_."

"_Doudan_," he said, and carried her to her bed, laying her down gently. "You should not tax your leg that way, _hime_. You cannot afford to show weakness in front of your enemies."

"You will never be my enemy. _Baka_," she added affectionately, but her voice was gently slurred. He could tell she was tired, close to falling asleep. She shouldn't sleep in such an elegant, ornate kimono as that, where it might be ruined by wrinkles, but she was so tired, he did not wish to disturb her.

"You should change," he murmured respectfully.

"Don't wanna...."

"You should change," he repeated, and with some careful maneuvering, got her obi untied and laid out on her desk chair. Somehow, he managed to get her out of the soft, sable kimono without swallowing his tongue. He kept his eyes fixed firmly on her face, never allowing his eyes to stray past the painfully disfigured countenance. The scar that ran from just above her ear down her jaw and across half of her pale face wrenched at her mouth, twisting what would have been a beautiful pair of lips into a perpetual half-grimace. He didn't care - looking at her mouth kept him from looking at other things that would snap his control. Now she lay half-undressed, half-asleep in her soft, white linen inner kimono. He brushed back a strand of that long silver hair, and murmured, "You should braid this."

"You do it," she whispered.

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She was asleep at last. She looked so peaceful in sleep. The small facial muscles, relaxed as they were, allowed her face to look closer to the "norm." Beautiful, peaceful, sweet. Not at all the battle-hardened warrior princess he knew lay hidden beneath the seemingly innocent facade. The dim candle light glinted on her eyelashes and the thick rope of braided hair, gleaming like copper fire in the dark. She slept, seemingly oblivious to everything that loomed ahead of them.

So much rested on Izumi and Yayoi, just as much as on Hisoka and Ritsuka, and the Emperor himself, and the four Dark Warlords. Talpa was relying, albeit without Yayoi and Izumi's knowledge, on the twin princesses' rebellious natures. Trained to observe silently and remain unnoticed, the twins brought back integral information from the human world that was often gathered incogruously through their "forbidden" excursions into the mortal realm. The timeframe for the invasion was dependant on the two of them, and they couldn't be told.

Somehow, he had a feeling the Princess Izumi, at least, knew what her father was using her for.

Smiling grimly to himself, the Dark Warlord eased his way from the Princess's bedchamber, careful not to wake her as he slid the thin, screen door shut with a barely discernible _swish-click_. Then he went to find his own rooms, to rest up for the war that would start in only a few months.

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Oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oo8oO

_I thought I'd give Izumi her own little mini-chapter, since most of this story revolves around her five sisters. Can anyone guess who her honey is yet? I'll give you a hint- the clue is in her name._

Japanese/English Translations:

Nani- what? What is it?  
Hai - yes  
Aishiteru - I love you  
Doudan - ditto; same here; me as well  
Baka - idiot


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